The very first Carvel ice cream store – an iconic roadside attraction in the Westchester town of Hartsdale – is closing its doors 71 years after it was opened by company founder Tom Carvel. Fudgie the Whale fans are devastated.

“I’m very upset with the fact it’s closing down. It’s historic. I love this place,” said Sy Donner, who grew up nearby but has since retired to Florida.

Current owner Abdol Faghihi – who bought the franchise outlet 20 years ago – is pulling the shutters down on the glass-fronted store for good because he says customers have melted away. Even at $2.50 for a swirl cone and $6.95 for a banana split, it just isn’t enough.

“The store [space] is too large to support just selling ice cream,” he said.

So at the end of next summer the wrecking ball will swing and knock down the building.

A retail mall will go up its place, with a Japanese restaurant as its main tenant. Faghihi says he has been promised a spot in the mall by the developer. He says he’ll open another Carvel franchise, smaller but more modern. “We’re going to close temporarily until the new building comes up,” he said.

Tom Carvel opened his first store on the spot in 1936, two years after his ice cream truck broke down in the middle of the bucolic town and residents flocked to buy up the melting product.

Carvel and his wife, Agnes, lived in the back of the original building for many years. It was torn down in the late 1950s and replaced with a metal and-glass structure that has stood since, a part of childhood memories for decades.

“The first time I came here I must have been 8 or 10 years old,” said Ed Mitura, 31, now a Mount Pleasant resident. “I used to like the brown bonnet cone. I think they should keep it open. There are enough Japanese restaurants around to save Carvel.”

Ten-year-old Alejandro Rodas, of White Plains, says he comes to the store “at least once a week.”

“I feel sad it’s going to close because I like this store. I think it’s the best ice cream store in the world,” he said.

Tom Carvel became wealthy as a franchiser. He sold the business in 1989 and died in 1990 at age 84.

The current owner, Atlanta-based Focus Brands, said it’s sad the flagship store is closing but there’s little that can be done.

The property “is [the owner’s] to do with as he wishes,” said spokeswoman Jennifer McLaughlin.

“There’s a lot of nostalgia and it’s definitely unfortunate. We’ve gotten a lot of calls from customers saying please save the building but sadly this is how business goes sometimes.”